Education & Capacity Building

UNEP's initiatives in the area of "Education for sustainable consumption and production" (ESCP) respond to the need for new cultural and educational models that can foster a new generation of citizens who integrate sustainability in their personal and professional decisions. The shared goal of these various initiatives is to provide innovative tools to communicate and learn about ESCP.

The target audience in the field of ESCP is national and local authorities, business organisations, teachers, vocational schools and trainers who need to communicate about various aspects of ESC and want to engage in innovative learning methodologies to better respond to the challenges of sustainable development.

Key Partners

UNESCO
We are proud of the strong partnership we have with the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (UNDESD) managed by UNESCO. This relationship meets the clear need expressed by various education practitioners that Education for Sustainable Development is strongly anchored in the day-to-day realities of young citizens and consumers and helps them choose more sustainable lifestyles.

Consumers Citizenship Network (CCN)
UNEP endorses and participates with its partner agency UNESCO in the activities of CCN, which aim at providing a concrete platform to teacher trainers to include ESC and citizenship in the core competences of teachers in Europe and beyond.

Italy
UNEP also collaborates very closely with the Marrakech Task Force (MTF) for Education for Sustainable Consumption (ESC) led by Italy. This partnership operates within the Marrakech Process and aims at fostering the concept of ESC in the political and academic arena. UNEP and the Italian MTF, in collaboration with the Consumers Citizenship Network, have designed political guidelines targeted at national authorities for the inclusion of ESC in the education system These guidelines are supplemented with documents providing arguments for ESC and a series of considerations of where and how ESC can be included in curricula or existing political strategies (National Sustainable Development Strategies, Education for the Environment etc.).

Sweden
UNEP cooperates with the Marrakech Task Force on Sustainable Lifestyles. This Task Force is developing material and supporting capacity building on education and communication for sustainable lifestyles, collecting best practices and inspiring examples on sustainable lifestyles; and supporting the implementation of demonstration projects to promote sustainable lifestyles.

Politecnico di Milano
UNEP has been working with Politecnico di Milano for many years on various issues including sustainable lifestyles with the projects on the creative communities and sustainable everyday project and on sustainability and design.

The International Association of Universities
The Association has contributed to the development of some educational tools in the marketing/communication field, with UNEP.